I accompanied Gerry Richards on the trip. It took 41 hours to
go from Sydney to Quito. Whilst in Los Angeles John and Irma
LeVine
took us out for 4 hours and then to an excellent dinner
afterwards.
Thank you Birdchat! Gerry planned the trip meticuously, studied
Spanish
for a year but as I'm on the internet and he isn't, I'll give you the
report.

We hired a Chevrolet (Suzuki) Vitara for US$78 per day from Budget
in
Quito. We took with us a tape recorder each with a directional
microphone,
and one 100 watt spotlight which we were able to clip onto the car
battery
terminals. I took an angled 613 Kowa telescope and a camera with
400mm AF lens. In addition, Gerry took an altimeter watch which
was
extremely helpful. He also took night bird tapes and some other
tapes
which friends had given to him.

Often our method of birding was to be at the site at dawn, have
breakfast
there, walk the trails if possible, return to the vehicle for a bite of
lunch around 1-2pm then bird somwhere nearby until dusk. Return
to
a town and eat at a restaurant. Wherever possible we
spotlighted.
When it came time to move we always did it in the afternoon and tried
to
do a reconnaisance of the area first. We had good luck with the
weather
with only one day in six weeks being a washout.

We only camped twice. Once in Cerro Blanco so we could see
Scrub
Nightjar and Peruvian Pygmy Owl, and once we slept in the car as it was
snowing in Cotapaxi National Park to see Noble Snipe. We stayed
overnight
at Cajanuma, Podacarpus National Park to see Rufous-banded Owl and
Band-winged
Nightjar.

We stayed in Quito at the Hotel Majestic (US$19 per night) and left
the next morning heading east. We stopped at a large supermarket
at Tumbaco. Here we bought powdered milk and breakfast
cereals.
We used information in "A Birders Guide to Ecuador" by Keith Taylor,
and
an excellent trip report by Alan Lewis of a 3 month trip he and Richard
Rollins did in 1995. (Unfortunately only 10 copies were made of
this
report)

The areas which are mentioned in "A Birders Guide to Ecuador" by
Keith
Taylor which we visited and the time we spent in each area are as
follows:

Papallacta
Pass
1 afternoon
Cuyuja beside Maspa Chico
River
1 morning
Baeza radio mast
trail
1 morning
Guacamayos
Ridge
4 days
San Rafael
Falls
1 day
Loreto Road around quarry at 2.8 km and along trails at 4.6km and
11.2km
4 days
Tena, around Auca lodge & beside river 2 days
Jatun Sacha on the Napo
River
4 days
Las Cayas Recreation
area
1 day
Cajanuma, Podocarpus National Park
3 days
Bombuscara, Podocarpus National Park 2 days
Sabiango, Sozoranga &
Utana
3 days
Buenaventura
1 day
Cerro Blanco Nature
Reserve
2 days
Santa Elana Peninsula & around Zabotal 2 days
Rio Palenque Scientific Research Stn. 2 days
Tinilandia
3 days
Mindo
area
5 days
Yanacocha
1 afternoon and evening
Cotopaxi
area
2 days

Ecuador is a well birded country so I won't put a full day by day
list
on the internet but should anybody want more information I can provide
it. I found the birding very hard simply because I had so much to
take in everyday for six weeks. I also saw some of the best birds
on this earth.